Waterskippers are carnivorous animals, occuring naturally throughout the Eighth. Recently, the Rooted Empire has engineered waterskippers to live underground, and has employed them to defend their tunnels. When the Onsuary Floods strike dungeons, the Empire uses the underground lakes to insert waterskippers.

After reaching maturity, two waterskippers will make a nest on the water, scavenging branches from nearby areas and solidifying them into rough piles with their saliva. After the nest is finished and a brief mating dance is performed, the female occupies the nest and begins to spawn offspring at a prodigious rate, three times faster than the roach queen, herself no slouch in this department. The offspring immediately begin to look for food, seeking any nearby prey. Waterskippers do not leave the water as a rule but will leap onto land to attack. Waterskippers' unwary prey can easily become overwhelmed by the sheer number of attacking beasts.

Waterskippers move identically to roaches, but only over water and shallow water. However, they may move onto square of land if it contains a target they wish to kill, such as the player or Stalwarts or soldiers. Although waterskippers are attracted to decoys, they will not jump onto land to kill one.

Every 10 turns, if there is a visible target in the room, a waterskipper nest will spawn a single waterskipper on an adjacent square of water. The square chosen will be the one closest to the nearest target and must not contain any standard obstacle or the player. If the nest is under the influence of a brain, then it will use the brain's distance to decide. Otherwise, it uses the Pythagorean Theorem. In the case of a tie, priority is given in the order of NW, N, NE, W, E, SW, S, SE.